Juventus want Firmino to replace Vlahovic

Juventus want Firmino to replace Vlahovic

As per Calciomercatoweb, Juventus are keen on signing Liverpool forward Roberto Firmino to replace forward Dusan Vlahovic.

Firmino’s contract expires in the summer and he will leave Liverpool as a free agent. Juventus hope to sign him for zero cost and then sell Vlahovic for a fee of €80m, claims the report.

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It doesn’t matter whether you’re Steven Gerrard, Trent Alexander-Arnold or a little kid playing down the local park, all boyhood Liverpool fans dream of scoring at Anfield on their Premier League debut.

 

Only the smallest fraction of supporters end up being able to make such dreams a reality of course, with even the majority of would-be professional footballers having to ‘just settle’ for running out at the home of the Reds instead.

 

A look around the squads of professional clubs in England and you’ll find plenty of boyhood Liverpool fans on their books, including even Man City talisman Kevin De Bruyne. But one childhood Red who actually got to make that dream a reality, has just seen his own Premier League ambitions come tumbling down.

 

READ MORE: ‘That is unacceptable’ – National media react as Liverpool changes coming after Southampton

 

READ MORE: Roberto Firmino moment speaks volumes as another Liverpool career may have just ended

 

Jack Harrison is expected to be one of the first players to leave Leeds United this summer following their relegation to the Championship on the final day of the season. The former England Under-21s international scored the Whites’ consolation in their 4-1 loss to Tottenham Hotspur as defeat sealed their fate.

 

A former Liverpool academy player, Leeds Live report that the 26-year-old, after being substituted with a knock in the 88th minute, ‘made a point of slowing his final few steps from the field, looked around, did a 360 and ensured everyone had seen his thankful applause’. He also gave his shirt away and shook as many hands as he could while walking around the perimeter of the Jack Charlton and Norman Hunter stands.

 

They would appear to be the farewell actions of a man aware he could have been making his final appearance in a Leeds United shirt. Despite signing a new five-year contract in April, it is reported that the Peacocks won’t stand in Harrison’s way if the right offer comes in, with a number of Premier League clubs already interested in offering him a swift return to the English top-flight.

 

As a 26-year-old English winger with 21 goals and 16 assists in the Premier League across the past three seasons, Harrison won’t be short of offers. He even nearly left Leeds mid-season when a £20m deal was agreed with Leicester City, only for club bosses to have an 11th hour change of heart.

 

Yet his Premier League dream wasn’t meant to end like this. A player previously on the books of Liverpool, Manchester United, and Man City, without ever featuring for any of the trio, his road to the English top-flight was far from orthodox.

 

But he has made the absolute most of it during Leeds’ three-year stint in the Premier League, starting with a near-perfect start at Anfield against Liverpool in September 2020 when making his English top-flight debut.

 

Leeds parted with £11m to sign Harrison on a permanent basis from Manchester City in the summer of 2021 after the winger had spent the previous three campaigns on loan at Elland Road, helping them win promotion in 2020 before clinching a top-half finish in their first year back in the top-flight.

 

He enjoyed an impressive first campaign in the Premier League too, recording eight goals and eight assists from the maximum 36 appearances he was able to make due to his loan status and getting off the mark at the first time of asking in a 4-3 away defeat to Liverpool on the opening day of the season.

 

“Growing up a Liverpool fan, I always dreamt of scoring at Anfield,” he wrote on Instagram at the time. “Delighted to make my Premier League debut and score for Leeds United.

 

“Disappointed with the result – a lot of mixed emotions and ways to improve, but a lot of positives to take too. Onto the next one.”

 

Aged 23 at the time of top-flight debut, Harrison’s path to Premier League football was hardly conventional but actually started in the Liverpool academy back in 2003, though his time with his boyhood club would only be brief as he was snapped up by fierce-rivals Manchester United at the age of seven.

 

Spending seven years in the Red Devils’ youth ranks, the winger would play alongside the likes of Marcus Rashford and Scott McTominay before taking the decision, encouraged by mother Debbie, to leave his Old Trafford dreams behind in pursuit of a scholarship in the United States in hope of enhancing his chances of making it as a professional.

 

However, it was without the blessing of United who refused provide video from Harrison’s time with the club as his mother reached out to schools in America, with Berkshire’s boys soccer coach, Jon Moodey, deciding to take a chance on the then 14-year-old despite not seeing him play.

 

The winger would move to Sheffield, Massachusetts alone to start a new life, with Debbie unable to afford making the move with him.

 

“When (my mother and I) made the decision to come, I’d always aspired to be a professional football player, I just wasn’t sure how I was going to do it,” Harrison says in an interview with ESPNFC in 2018. “She just said, ‘Go by yourself, and if you like it, you can stay out there. If you don’t, you can come back and we can figure something out.'”

 

“There are so many who go through the system. Ultimately, maybe only one or two out of each age group make it to the first team, if that,” Harrison told the Athletic of their decision in 2019.

 

“She was starting to wonder what happens to the rest of the kids. She could see pictures of them on the walls but you didn’t ever hear anything about any of them. She began thinking about a more secure pathway for me. When she first looked into it, I had no idea. She introduced the idea to me when I was 12 or 13. I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to leave at all.

 

“She wanted to come but we didn’t have enough money for us to both fly so I went on my own. She was worried. I’m an only child and we’ve always been really close but I’ve always been very independent too. After school I’d get on the train and wander through Manchester to get to my mum’s offices or go to training. It wasn’t any different visiting the US.

 

“I was an unaccompanied minor so I had to be accompanied by these air hostesses from Virgin. My mum was like, ‘He wandered off with all these pretty women. I was there crying and he didn’t have a tear in his eye!’

 

“It was hard for her. She’d reached out to people she was close with, asking if going to the US was a good decision and whether she should go through with it. They gave her pretty negative feedback. She was a bit discouraged by that but she believed in the system and the pathway she was trying to create.”

 

Debbie’s faith was proven right, however, as Harrison shone in the States. During his time with Berkshire School, he led them to three-straight NEPSAC Class A Championships, while also winning the Gatorade Boys Soccer Player of the Year twice.

 

Then spending a year with ACC side Wake Forest, he became the first player to win the league’s Offensive Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year awards and was also named the Gatorade National Player of the Year.

 

Such exploits saw him attract interest from European sides, but, carrying an injury at the time, Harrison made the step up to the MLS.

 

“The main reason why I came out here was to gain a good education, possibly a degree from a very good college, so that if anything happened in football, that I could fall back on that,” Harrison told ESPNFC. “After the season, I could’ve gone on trial in Europe — there was a couple of teams interested.

 

“But being injured and already having an offer from MLS on the table, MLS was the better option, rather than risk a trial and possibly get injured further.”

 

Installed as first pick in MLS’s 2016 Superdraft, despite suffering a stress fracture in his pubic bone that would rule him out for the start of the season, Harrison was quickly snapped up by Chicago Fire.

 

However, his time as a Chicago player would last all of 30 minutes, giving him time to offer a short, appreciative speech with a Chicago scarf around his neck, while New York City, who had fourth pick in the draft, negotiated with Chicago there and then to swap that and a cash fee for Harrison.

 

“You’ve got no control over it at all,” he recalled. “Right after my first speech I had to go on camera and say, ‘Yeah, I’m really looking forward to going to Chicago,’ with a Chicago scarf round my shoulders. “Thirty minutes later I did the same thing but with a New York scarf on. It was bizarre.”

 

Approached by then head coach Patrick Vieira, Claudio Reyna and David Lee, New York City’s technical director, Harrison was caught unaware when told, “We’ve traded for you. Welcome to New York.”

 

And Vieira was desperate to sign the MLS’ hottest talent out of college football.

 

“We saw videos of him and something I really liked was how comfortable he was on the ball, how well he could dribble and how fast he could move with the ball at his feet,” the former World Cup winner told the Athletic. “I liked how direct he was.

 

“I’d been at Manchester City coaching the Under-21s and he impressed me to that same level. We were sure we wanted to sign him and we made sure we did.”

 

Harrison would spend two seasons in the MLS with New York, making his debut in an embarassing 7-0 defeat to local-rivals New York Red Bulls before scoring on his first start against Red Salt Lake.

 

In total, he’d make 61 appearances in the United States, scoring 14 goals and claiming 10 assists, finishing third in the 2016 MLS Rookie of the Year voting and being named second and third in MLS’ 2016 and 2017 “24 Under-24” lists respectively.

 

And such performances ensured Vieira wasn’t the only A-List name singing his praises, with legendary team-mates Andrea Pirlo, David Villa and Frank Lampard all suitably impressed.

 

“He’s a good player, technically he’s really good,” Viera said in 2016 after Harrison’s debut. “He understands the game, he can come and link with our No. 9, he can run behind the back four, his football brain is fantastic.”

 

“He is very young, he’s fast and he is capable of playing in Europe,” Pirlo would tell TalkSPORT ahead of Harrison’s return to England. “He’s a good player.”

 

“I’ve spent a lot of years in this game, and he has something important that only a few players have,” Villa would say of the player he nicknamed ‘Golden boy’.

 

“I saw from day one that he had something special. If you got the ball to his feet, something would happen. He learned very quickly and I had a lot of respect for him. We talk a lot on text.”

 

“Jack is a million miles from the player he was in New York,” Lampard said of the winger last year . “I hope that doesn’t sound negative in any way but he was a real development player at that point. He’s a real lovely lad. I have so much time for Jack. I keep in touch with him and I actually spoke with him the other day.

 

“The player he has developed into at Leeds is really, really impressive. He’s playing great football, is a threat with both feet. He is quick, can run at high intensity and he is one of their major players in an attacking sense.

 

“I’m delighted for him in how his career has developed…his career has gone in a great direction and it continues to.”

 

Understandably Harrison was closest to compatriot Lampard, with all three making a big impact on his early career.

 

“I remember the first day vividly,” he told the Athletic. “I saw Frank and was thinking, ‘Don’t ask him for a picture, you’re his team-mate now.’ But as soon as I got drafted, David (Villa) sent me a text welcoming me to the club. That’s the sort of people they were.

 

“He’s (Lampard) a huge name, a huge player. I’d be on the bike next to him and I didn’t know what to say. It was really awkward. I’m looking at his thighs and thinking ‘they’re much bigger than mine!’ But eventually over time you build these relationships.”

 

“Oh my God, it was so effortless (for Pirlo) Incredible. But you could talk to him. It would have been easy for those guys to act privileged or not bother with the young lads but they were always looking out for us. I admire that most about them.”

 

“Watching these guys every day, I was always looking to learn,” he told Leeds Live . “For the first three or four months I was injured, so I just had to watch and observe. Watching them day in, day out in training and in games and stuff, you always pick up little things. As a player, I was young back then, I was always trying to learn as much as possible.

 

“I didn’t know how long I’d spend with these guys, so I was just trying to make the most of every moment with them. They teach you things without you even knowing, so it was an incredible experience to play with the likes of those players. I was very grateful that I had that opportunity.

 

“Those guys are brilliant. It could be so easy for them to forget about the youngsters or the whole team, but they were always nice to me and looking out for me and the other young players, looking to help them wherever they could. They were fantastic idols, I’ve always looked up to them.”

 

After two years in the MLS, Harrison was snapped up by New York’s sister club back in England, Manchester City in January 2018 before being sent on loan to Middlesbrough.

 

Villa was delighted to see his former team-mate make such a move, posting on Instagram: “Golden boy, I will miss you so much but I’m very happy for you.

 

“You deserve it for all the hard work and dedication you show every single day. It’s been a pleasure helping you with your first steps of your amazing career. Keep up the good work my friend!!! Good luck mate!”

 

However, he’d only get to enjoy one pre-season under Pep Guardiola, though he would get to feature against boyhood side Liverpool for the first time in a pre-season friendly in at the MetLife Stadium back in the United States in July 2018, before the first of three loan moves to Leeds United and the start of a long Man City goodbye without ever making an appearance.

 

“That was weird at first,” Harrison said of his brief stint under the Spaniard, “But with his personality, he makes you feel really comfortable.

 

“I only spent pre-season with him so I don’t know what he’s like in the season but on the first day, everyone was on the pitch and he walked on and introduced himself to each and every player.

 

“It’s the little things like that which make you feel comfortable. When I spoke to him, he asked me how New York was. He knew everything about me. He’s intense and you have to pay attention all the time when you train but he’s very approachable.”

 

Making 42 appearances in his first season with the Whites, claiming four goals and four assists as Leeds came unstuck against close friend Lampard’s Derby County in the Championship play-offs, he returned six goals and eight assists and was a Championship ever-present the following year as Bielsa’s side won promotion as champions.

 

And both Vieira and Villa were in no doubt that he would be a success in the Premier League.

 

“Oh yeah I don’t have a doubt about that,” the Frenchman told the Athletic. “Jack is that good. I don’t think he realises how good he is. Technically he’s got a real gift. I saw it as soon as I watched him. It was all there.”

 

“I’m not sure where or with which club,” Villa said. “But I know that he will. It’s certain.”

 

And the Spaniard is still helping him, even now, six years on from when they were last team-mates back in New York.

 

“He wanted to be scoring more goals, and maybe to be creating more, but I told him to keep calm and stay focused,” Villa said. “It happens in everyone’s career and it happened in mine.

 

“I would say once a year minimum I’d feel like I couldn’t score. Don’t think about the last chance, think about the next one.”

 

Harrison has certainly taken such advice on board. He recorded six goals and 10 assists in all competitions for the struggling side this season, after all, having scored 10 goals last year as he built on his impressive maiden campaign.

 

Liverpool fans might not realise he is a boyhood fan or started in their academy, but the winger got to Anfield eventually. He will be hoping that Leeds’ relegation doesn’t leave him facing a longer wait to next run out at the famous ground.

 

Grateful for the career he has had so far, he might not have taken an orthodox path, trading Liverpool for Manchester United before moving his life to the United States, but he ended up exactly where both he and his mother wanted him to be – playing in the Premier League.

 

“It all comes down to my mum,” he insisted. “I’ve got a lot of people to thank but without her thinking outside the box, I don’t think I’d have been in this position.

 

“I was a bit oblivious to how she was feeling back then. She did the whole facade thing and made it all seem fine so that I was fine as well. But she must have missed me.

 

“I’m grateful for everything and I try to make the most of all this because I know it’s not going to last a long time. If you’re really lucky you get 15 years out the game. Over a lifetime, it’s not that long.”

 

Harrison will now be determined to return to the Premier League this summer, having continued to prove himself for Leeds despite their relegation.

 

A version of this story was first published on December 26, 2021.

 

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